Ottawa (river)
The Ottawa River ( French Rivière des Outaouais ; English Ottawa River ) is a left tributary of the Saint Lawrence River .
For most of its length it forms the border between the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec . The river is 1,271 km long and its catchment area is approximately 146,000 km². It rises in the Laurentine Mountains and flows into the St. Lawrence River near Montréal .
geography
The source of the river is the 430 m high Lac Capimitchigama in the Laurentine Mountains of Québec, about 280 km northwest of Montréal. The Ottawa then flows westward through the sparsely populated region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue , passing several lakes. At Timiskamingsee it reaches the border with Ontario and turns south.
After the confluence of the Mattawa , the Ottawa now flows in a south-easterly direction and takes on other important tributaries. Two large river islands mark the beginning of the more densely populated lower reaches, the Isle des Allumettes (190 km²) and the Île de Grand Calumet (132 km²). The cities of Ottawa on the right and Gatineau on the left bank of the river form an agglomeration with over a million inhabitants. In Ottawa, the Rideau Canal branches off to the right, which leads to Kingston on Lake Ontario .
The Ottawa River then flows further east and becomes increasingly wider until it finally flows into the Lac des Deux Montagnes west of the Île de Montréal . Four arms of the river wind their way through the Hochelaga archipelago . After a few kilometers, two of them reach Lac Saint-Louis to the south and thus the St. Lawrence River via a direct route. Two more are significantly longer: the Rivière des Mille Îles and the Rivière des Prairies flow northeast and form the Île Jésus , on which the city of Laval lies. They converge at the northern tip of the Île de Montréal and shortly afterwards also flow into the St. Lawrence River.
geology
The Ottawa River lies in the Ottawa Bonnechere Trench , a rift valley that formed in the Mesozoic Era 175 million years ago and extends to the Nipissing Sea. After the glaciers retreated at the end of the Würm Ice Age , the valley was flooded by an arm of the Atlantic Ocean , the Champlain Sea . Fossil remains of marine life have been found in clay deposits from that time .
Sediment deposits in some areas led to poor drainage and the formation of large bogs . In addition, large deposits of clay known as Leda clay formed. This sound is extremely unstable, which leads to numerous landslides in heavy rain. For example, in 1993 the ground under Lemieux, Ontario slipped into the South Nation River (the place had been evacuated two years earlier as a precaution).
history
The river was an important trade route for various Algonquian tribes who called it Kitchissippi ("Great River"). One of the tribes settled on the strategic Isle des Allumettes and enforced a road toll. Étienne Brûlé was probably the first European to travel the river in 1610. Three years later, Samuel de Champlain , who over the Ottawa and Mattawa the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron reached and so one of the major routes for the North American fur trade established.
Since the importance of the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River was only recognized later, the Ottawa and the lower reaches of the St. Lawrence River were referred to together as Rivière du Canada ("Canada River") in the first few decades . Later the river was also called Grande Rivière or Grande Rivière des Algonquin ("Great River of the Algonquin"). At the end of the 17th century, the Ottawa controlled the middlemen on the river. Although they themselves settled further west on Lake Huron, their name caught on as the name for the river.
The French did not begin to settle the valley until around 1740, the British around fifty years later on the south side. Hull (now part of Gatineau) was founded in 1800, and forestry flourished along the Ottawa River and in the side valleys . In 1832 the river was connected to Lake Ontario with the construction of the Rideau Canal . The city of Ottawa developed from the Bytown settlement on the canal and was declared the capital of Canada in 1857. From around 1900, agriculture replaced logging, and in 1920 the first hydroelectric power station was built .
Hydropower plants and dams
Along the Ottawa River are several hydropower plants and dams operated by Hydro-Québec (HQ), Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) and Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs ( MDDEP).
On the upper course in the downstream direction these are:
| Surname | completion position |
Power [MW] |
Number of turbines |
hydraul. Potential [m] |
reservoir | operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrage Bourque | 1949 | n / A | n / A | n / A | Rés. Dozois | HQ |
| Rapide-7 | 1941-1949 | 67 | 4th | 20.73 | Rés. Decelles | HQ |
| Rapide-2 | 1954-1964 | 67 | 4th | 20.43 | n / A | HQ |
| Barrage des Quinze | 1947 | n / A | n / A | n / A | Lac des Quinze | MDDEP |
| Rapides-des-Quinze | 1923-1955 | 103 | 6th | 25.9 | n / A | HQ |
| Rapides-des-îles | 1966-1973 | 176 | 4th | 26.22 | n / A | HQ |
| Premiere chute | 1968-1975 | 131 | 4th | 22.26 | n / A | HQ |
Hydro-Québec offers guided tours of the Première-Chute hydroelectric power station .
At the underflow in the downstream direction these are:
| Surname | completion position |
Power [MW] |
Number of turbines |
hydraul. Potential [m] |
reservoir | operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lac-Témiscamingue | 1940s | n / A | n / A | n / A | Lac Témiscamingue | PWGSC |
| Otto Holden | 1952-1953 | 243 | 8th | n / A | OPG | |
| Of Joachim | 1950 | 429 | 8th | Holden Lake | OPG | |
| Bryson | 1925-1949 | 56 | 3 | 18.29 | n / A | HQ |
| Chenaux | 1950-1951 | 144 | 8th | n / A | OPG | |
| Chute-des-Chats / Chats Falls |
1931-1932 | 188 | 8th | 16.16 | Lac des Chats | HQ / OPG |
| Hull-2 | 1920-1969 | 27 | 4th | 11.58 | n / A | HQ |
| Chaudiere No. 2 | 1892/2001 | 8.4 | 4th | 11 | n / A | Energy Ottawa Inc. |
| Chaudiere No. 4th | 1900/2005 | 9.3 | 2 | 10.3 | n / A | Energy Ottawa Inc. |
| Carillon | 1962-1964 | 753 | 14th | 17.99 | n / A | HQ |
Generators 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Chute-des-Chats hydroelectric power station (with an output of 96 MW) are operated by Ontario Power Generation. Generators 6, 7, 8 and 9 with a total output of 92 MW are operated by Hydro-Québec.
At the Barrage de Hull-2 dam in Ottawa, the two Chaudiere No. 2 and Chaudiere No. 4 . These were replaced in the early 2000s and used by Energy Ottawa Inc. operated.
Hydro-Québec offers guided tours of the Carillon hydropower plant .
Web links
- Ottawa River ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
- Ottawa Riverkeeper / Sentinelle Outaouais
- Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board
- Culture in the Ottawa Valley
- Ontario Power Generation - Ottawa River
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Atlas of Canada - Rivers ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ Natural Resources Canada
- ↑ Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Hydro-Québec - Hydroelectric Generating Stations
- ^ Ontario Power Generation
- ↑ Ontario Power Authority ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
